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"I really don't know what happened. I think somebody got into my left rear, and I don't know if I cut a tire down," McMurray said. "After I felt that happen, I just didn't have any control. ... It's unfortunate. It's part of [restrictor] plate racing."

"I know I had one car on my roof and everybody just kept piling in," Harvick said. "It is just one of those things that just doesn't take much for it to all go south here at a superspeedway track. It is what it is."

Most of the cars stayed on the ground in Saturday night's crash, although Scott's rear wheels lifted off the ground as Harvick's nose slid underneath him.

A 22-car wreck with 71 laps remaining forced about a half-dozen contenders out of the Coke Zero 400 Saturday at Daytona International Speedway. Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images

"I didn't see a lot," Scott said. "We were in the wall and jacked up and I guess [Harvick] came up under me and drove underneath my car, and then I was up in the air. It was a pinball effect. It is an unfortunate end. You always seem to get those big ones here in the Fourth of July race. Sometimes there is nothing you can do. There was no chance to ever miss that for our [car].

"It is just a product of this type of racing. When you are in the pack and there is one wreck ... there is no way for people to escape."

Brad Keselowski won the race, kicking off the famed track's annual fireworks show at Daytona, but there were plenty of sparks and smoke on Lap 90.